Those who tore, ridiculed Constitution must face law, says Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Friday said constitution was the soul of a state and tearing it means tearing apart the state itself and ridiculing it means ridiculing the people and those who tore up the Constitution must be brought to Justice.

“Constitution is a sacrosanct social contract between the state and citizens on the one hand and the glue that binds the federating units together on the other. Abrogating it means dismembering the federation and alienating the citizen from the state,” he said on the Constitution Day on Friday. The Constitution of Pakistan 1973 was adopted by the National Assembly on April 10 in 1973.

Bilawal also called for punishing those "treasonous elements who abrogated and subverted this foundational document of the state for personal power and ambitions. “It is a national disgrace that a dictator abrogated the Constitution in 1977 later ridiculing it as ‘a mere 15-page document’ that he boasted could be torn at will,” he said. He said those who tore and ridiculed the Constitution were traitors and dictators and usurpers must be punished; they will be in the fullness of time.

“A dictator who tore up the Constitution and is on the run must be brought back to face the law,” he said.

This day reminds us of the importance of jealously safeguarding the Constitution and relentlessly pursuing those who have subverted it, he added.

He paid glowing tribute to Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto for “forging historic consensus among all the provinces, political parties and shades of opinion” in making the Constitution.

He also lauded Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto as the icon of democracy and constitutionalism and countless political leaders and workers belonging to different political parties who rendered huge sacrifices in the cause of safeguarding democracy and the Constitution.